MacNews Latest News

Econ Technologies has released ChronoSync to version 4.5.5, an update of the automated synchronization and backup application for Mac OS X that can synchronize, backup, and create bootable backups.

This release features performance and behavior improvements on Mac OS X Yosemite, as well as changes that improve stability and reliability. This maintenance release also includes Package File analysis improvements and several minor bug fixes.

Early early bird discount registration (http://www.filemaker.com/r/devcon) for the 20th anniversary edition of the FileMaker Developer Conference, the worldwide gathering for corporate and independent FileMaker solution developers, is now open. The 2015 FileMaker Developer Conference takes place July 20-23, 2015, at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Nevada.

The conference is for anyone who wants to acquire new skills, improve current skills or advance their careers by using the FileMaker Platform to build compelling custom business solutions for Mac OS, iOS, Windows and web browsers.

Conference attendees will save US$800 off the full price ($2,095 after May 26), paying $1,295 by taking advantage of the early early bird discount, available now through March 31, 2015; or save $500 off the full price by paying $1,595 by May 26, 2015 with the early bird discount. All paid conference...

EditShare (www.editshare.com) has released version 7 of its Geevs range of ingest and playout video servers. Geevs 7 adds such new features as enhanced integration with EditShare’s shared storage and Flow media asset management solutions.

Tara Montford, EditShare’s managing director, says Geevs Broadcast Servers have a long history of success within a wide range of demanding workflows including newsroom scheduling, live sports with instant replay, and multi-camera studio ingest. She adds that Geevs 7 provides a host of increased functionality and features for the standard Geevs Client license, including:

° Playback and recording of channels across multiple Geevs servers from a single client;

Tension Software has announced AutoMailer 2.2, an update of its Mac OS X app that allows you to send personalized emails to multiple addresses, in text or web format, each merged with data from an internal database. It's been optimized for Mac OS X Yosemite.

AutoMailer lets you prepare and send an unlimited quantity of emails with a single click. Each email can have custom content depending on whom the recipient is. People receiving the emails won't notice any difference compared to standard emails and they will be able to reply to them as usual, according to the folks at Tension Software.

Version 2.2 sports: a new connection module with improved mail server connections; the ability select the type of connection (Plain, StartTLS or Plain-StartTLS: functionality to test a mail server connection (without sending); an improved Import-Export module; alternate custom text for Web/Html email; and an upgraded manual.

Apple has announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 first quarter that ended Dec. 27, 2014. The company posted record quarterly revenue of $74.6 billion and record quarterly net profit of $18 billion, or $3.06 per diluted share.

These results compare to revenue of $57.6 billion and net profit of $13.1 billion, or $2.07 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.9% compared to 37.9% in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 65 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The results were fueled by all-time record revenue from iPhone and Mac® sales as well as record performance of the App Store. iPhone unit sales of 74.5 million also set a new record.

"We’d like to thank our customers for an incredible quarter, which saw demand for Apple products soar to an all-time high," said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a press release. "Our revenue grew 30%over last year to $74.6 billion, and the execution by our teams to achieve these results was...

Oryx Digital has introduced Hyper Plan 1.0.1, its new planning solution for Mac OS X and Windows. It allows anyone to create cards with user-defined properties, such as status, priority, assigned to and budget.

The cards can then be arranged and colored according to these properties. Users can arrange cards in rows by priority, or even colored by who they have been assigned to. Hyper Plan can also arrange cards in a timeline and total numerical properties by row and column.

Hyper Plan allows you to create cards with properties such as status, priority, assigned to and budget. The cards can then be arranged and colored according to these properties. For example, you could arrange cards into columns to do, doing, done and waiting with rows for each member of staff, and colored according to priority.

Or you could arrange them in rows by priority, colored by who they have been assigned to. You can switch between views with a mouse click. Hyper Plan can also...

Western Union (www.westernunion.com), which specializes in global payment services, has announced it will offer Apple Pay, Apple's mobile payment solution, at Western Union’s flagship locations, to provide consumers yet another way to fund global money transfers and bill payments in the United States.

Consumers making Western Union transactions at kiosks in over 7,600 Walgreens and Duane Reade locations nationwide also have the ability to utilize the Apple Pay service. Odilon Almeida, Western Union president, Americas and European Union, says the company's analysis shows that international money transfer senders, particularly recent immigrants, are as mobile-savvy and digitally motivated as the general population with nearly six out of 10 migrants owning a smartphone, moving it from a luxury device to an irreplaceable everyday necessity.

HYPER has a new Kickstarter project to launch the iPin: "The World's Smallest Laser Pointer and Wireless Presenter" for iPhone/iOS and Android. The Kickstarter project ends in 15 days time on Feb. 9.

HYPER says the iPin is the world’s smallest laser pointer attachment for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. As the name suggest, it's as tiny as a pin that disappears completely into the audio jack of the iOS device with almost no protruding parts. It turns the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch into a laser pointer and wireless presenter.

The new iPin for Android connects to the micro USB port of compatible Android devices. Like the iPin for iOS, it comes with a free app that can be downloaded from the Google Play store that turns the iPin connected Android device into a powerful laser pointer and wireless presenter. T

The new BTtogo adds another level of convenience to the iPin, according to the folks at HYPEr. Traveling to another office and...

AssistiveWare (http://www.assistiveware.com) has released Wrise 1.0, its latest Mac OS X application that will be introduced at this week's ATIA conference in Orlando, Florida.

Wrise is a text-to-speech-powered word processor designed to make reading and writing accessible for everyone. Offering word highlighting, zoom and EasyReading mode, texts become more comprehensible and easier on the eyes, says says David Niemeijer, CEO and founder of AssistiveWare. With Speak as you Type, Word Prediction and speech tags, writing effort is significantly reduced, he adds.

Wrise is fully customizable and can be used to read selected text aloud in any Mac application. Users can personalize their reading experience by selecting their preferred voice, adjusting its speech rate and even fine-tuning the pronunciation of words. What's more, it allows import of a variety of document types including PDF,...

Lemke Software has announced CADintosh 8.1, an update to its 2D CAD program for Mac OS X (10.6.8 or higher).

CADintosh provides a selection of tools to develop technical, mechanical, and architectural drawings. Designed especially for technical draftsmen and designers, version 8.1 includes new and updated features such as improved pen options, the addition of a large crosshair cursor option, and the ability to export the visible drawing as DXF is added. An open/save of sets featured has been added as well.

CADintosh 8.1 costs US$33.99 and is available worldwide through the Mac App Store in the Graphics & Design category. It can also be directly purchased online from the Lemkesoft website (http://www.lemkesoft.de/en/lemkesoft/) for $32. Version 8.1 is a free update for all CADintosh 8.x users. The upgrade from 1.x-7.x to 8.x is $19.95 (USD) on the Lemke website.

During a 72-hour window that starts at sign up, registrants can watch over 4,000 creative and tech. courses in VFX, CAD, HTML, and IT. Training options include everything from Photoshop, Maya, Nuke and V-Ray plus various programming languages with Code School’s signature interactive training.

"We recognize there are numerous ways to learn and are committed to bringing new learning styles to the Pluralsight family of products," saysAaron Skonnard, CEO and co-founder of Pluralsight. "Together we will continue to help professionals remain relevant and ensure businesses stay on...

MasterCard, the official card of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and the PGA Tour are bringing the latest payment technology to the spectator experience with the introduction of contactless acceptance, including Apple Pay support.

Food and beverage concessions at the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open near the16th hole at TPC Scottsdale will be contactless enabled through a partnership with Prom Management Group, which provides catering to 38 professional golf tour events, allowing golf fans to make payments using Apple Pay. This will be the first PGA TOUR stop to accept Apple Pay, when it debuts for fans attending the tournament later this week.

"The tournament experience lends itself well to simple, secure payments so fans get through concessions and back to the tournament quickly," says Matt Barr, Group Head, U.S. Emerging Payments, MasterCard. "We’re thrilled to partner with the PGA TOUR to bring contactless acceptance to stops on the 2015 schedule. Through our...

FileMaker has launched the FileMaker Community (www.filemaker.com/r/community) , a free online resource for anyone interested in how to build custom business solutions for iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows, and the web.

Formerly known as the FileMaker Technical Network, or TechNet, the FileMaker Community has been completely redesigned and reorganized to make it easier for people of all skill levels to find information, engage in discussions, and share ideas and interests. All 60,000-plus current members of TechNet automatically get access to the FileMaker Community.

Anyone can browse and download resources without the need to register or log in. The FileMaker Community "delivers the resources that people need to succeed in building and deploying FileMaker solutions in a single, searchable and engaging online spot."

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has named the Apple App Store as the first recipient of its Technical Impact Award.

According to the award: "Since launching in 2008, Apple's App Store has risen as a disruptive platform for interactive media that has pushed the technological landscape forward with new apps and experiences for consumers to discover each day. It has been a game changer that has excited and surprised hundreds of millions, and forever changed the way software and games are distributed and sold to much of the world."

"When we set out to expand the scope of how the Academy celebrates industry achievement, we made a decision to concentrate on significant contributions in technological innovation," says Martin Rae, president, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. "The App Store represents Apple’s commitment to delivering the seamless marriage of devices and services – democratizing content distribution and allowing anyone to become...

In addition to processing a variety of video files, Video ASCII Art also processes still photos. It support outputting art to both black/white text and full color, with the ability to export plain mp4, text, html, tif, and rtf files. A user-editable character set adjusts the available characters to be used, while the maximum character width option controls the finished product size.

Compatible source videos include, but are not limited to, mp4, m4v, mov, avi, mkv, mpg. Compatible images include jpeg, png, gif, bmp, psd, tif, tga, jpg, tiff, and more. Output quality greatly depends on the input file. Often images such as clip art work better than sources such as digital photos, according to the folks at Nuclear Nova.

Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (www.cirpllc.com) has released analysis of the results of its research on mobile phone manufacturers for the calendar quarter that ended Dec. 31. CIRP finds that among the major phone brands, Apple had the largest share of the U.S. market, with half of all phone sales.

"The strength of the September 2014 launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus fueled Apple’s dominance in US mobile phone sales this quarter," says Josh Lowitz, partner and co-founder of CIRP. "Apple had virtually double the sales of Samsung, and five times that of LG. No other brand accounted for as much as 5% of US sales. The Amazon Fire and Blackberry smartphones registered slight share, which we attribute to random sample fluctuation as much as actual sales."

"Because of the iPhone launch, Apple increased its share considerably over the 28% in the July-September quarter," adds Mike Levin, partner and co-...

equinux (http://www.equinux.com) has introduced version 2.5 of Mail Designer and Mail Designer Pro, its Mac OS X apps for designing emails and newsletters.

A problem with the Design Delivery service has been fixed. An issue while saving documents has been fixed. With version 2.5, uploads to Campaign Monitor are more reliable.Mail Designer 2 (US$29.99) and Mail Designer Pro 2 ($49.99) are available both in the equinux Online Store and the Mac App Store.

It packs a one-inch condenser capsule into a compact enclosure that can be used to make professional recordings anywhere. With iRig Mic Studio, musicians, vocalists, home producers, podcasters, broadcasters, voice-over artists and more have a studio-quality large-diaphragm microphone that fits in the palm of their hand.

It comes equipped with a powerful suite of vocal apps. VocaLive is an effects processor and multi-track recording app that features a selection of 12 professional real-time vocal effects. EZ Voice is a sing-along app to help vocalists practice with any song in their music library. iRig Recorder is an utility for field recording, podcasting, note taking and more. All are available at the Apple App Store.

The iRig Mic Studio is also fully compatible with a wide variety of third...

equinux (http://www.equinux.com) has introduced version 2.5 of Mail Designer and Mail Designer Pro, its Mac OS X apps for designing emails and newsletters.

A problem with the Design Delivery service has been fixed. An issue while saving documents has been fixed. With version 2.5, uploads to Campaign Monitor are more reliable.Mail Designer 2 (US$29.99) and Mail Designer Pro 2 ($49.99) are available both in the equinux Online Store and the Mac App Store.

QNAP Systems (www.qnap.com) has announced the TS-x31+ series Turbo NAS for small and home offices. Embedded with a dual-core 1.4 GHz ARM Cortex®-A15 CPU, the TS-x31+ series provides a powerful yet energy-efficient solution for file storage, sharing and data backup with hardware-accelerated encryption, coupled with the easy-to-use cloud-based Notes Station 2.0, various multimedia applications and more, says Jason Hsu, product manager of QNAP. ]

Powered by an energy-efficient ARM Cortex-A15 dual-core 1.4GHz processor, new VFPv4 floating point unit, and 1GB DDR3 RAM with native support for SATA 6Gb/s drives, the TS-x31+ series purportedly delivers transfer and multitasking performance of up to 200MB/s throughput. The enhanced hardware encryption engine provides transfer speeds of over 150 MB/s with AES-256 bit Full NAS Volume Encryption, boosting system performance & security while ensuring the safety of sensitive data...

Apple has updated Logic Pro X, its professional audio software, to version 10.1. It adds support for Mail Drop and Air Drop in OS X Yosemite for sharing your projects. Other new features and enhancements include:

• 10 new Drummers that produce beats in a variety of electronic and hip hop styles including Techno, House, Trap, Dubstep and more
• Drummer provides specialized sound and performance controls for dialing in electronic or hip hop drum grooves
• New Drum Machine Designer plug-in offers new sounds and features for customizing electronic drum kits in a variety of styles
• Create a sequence of notes with a single mouse gesture using the new Brush Tool in the Piano Roll Editor
• New view options in the Piano Roll Editor let you see more notes in less vertical space and help identify drum sounds by name
• Easily compress or expand the timing of selected notes with new time handles in the Piano Roll Editor
• Note Repeat and Spot Erase...

At this point it’s pretty safe to say that no MOBA is going to dethrone Dota 2 and League of Legends anytime soon. After all, if Batman can’t do it, nobody can. However, with a genre as popular and profitable as this one, there’s still room for smaller games to carve out unique identities. Jurojin: Immortal Ninja opts for this path with its... | Read more »

Final February Fun at 148Apps
How do you know what apps are worth your time and money? Just look to the review team at 148Apps. We sort through the chaos and find the apps you’re looking for. The ones we love become Editor’s Choice, standing out above the many good apps and games with something just a little bit more to offer. Take a look at... | Read more »

GDC 2015 – Does Not Commute is Definitel...

GDC 2015 – Does Not Commute is Definitely a Game You Should Keep an Eye on
Posted by Rob Rich on March 2nd, 2015 [ permalink ]
We were teased about Mediocre Games’ (Smash Hit,
| Read more »

F84 Games & POW! Announce Stan Lee V...

F84 Games has announced that it is working with legendary comic creator Stan Lee and POW! Entertainment to produce Stan Lee’s Hero Command. The game will be a action adventure of heroic proportions.
| Read more »

Setlyst Keeps Your Set Straight So You C...

Setlyst Keeps Your Set Straight So You Can Focus On Rocking Out.
Posted by Jessica Fisher on March 2nd, 2015 [ permalink ]
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
| Read more »

Space is Vast, So Space Agency Has a Vas...

Space is Vast, So Space Agency Has a Vast New Update!
Posted by Jessica Fisher on March 2nd, 2015 [ permalink ]
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
| Read more »

Size DOES Matter Review

Size DOES Matter Review
By Campbell Bird on March 2nd, 2015
Our Rating: :: HARD TO BEATUniversal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
This rhythm game has a unique control scheme and performance system that make it feel like a true innovation in the genre.
| Read more »

The first ever action 3D card battler Al...

On the other hand, you probably haven’t played an action 3D card battler – until now. Step forward, All Star Legion.
All Star Legion is a 3D QTE-based action RPG card battler, but fear not – the game itself isn’t as convoluted as its description.
You collect over thirty heroes to train and summon into battle with you, first deciding on the timing... | Read more »

Travel Back to the 1980s With the Making...

Headup Games has released a hilarious making of video for its upcoming title, Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic. The game is a RPG/Roguelike where you control three heroes set to save the township of Pixton from an evil cult called The Sons of Dawn. They’re going to summon up some ancient, terrible god so you had better work fast to thwart the cult’s... | Read more »

Xplain's use of MacNews, AppleCentral and AppleExpo are not affiliated with Apple, Inc. MacNews, MacForge, Xplain, "The journal of Apple technology", Apple Expo, Explain It, MacDev, MacDev-1, THINK Reference, NetProfessional, MacTech Central, MacTech Domains, and the MacTutorMan are trademarks or service marks of Xplain Corporation. MacTech is a registered trademark of Xplain Corporation. Other trademarks and copyrights appearing in this printing or software remain the property of their respective holders. Not responsible for typographical errors.

All contents are Copyright 1984-2010 by Xplain Corporation. All rights reserved. Theme designed by Icreon.